1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for carrying out processes relating to image quality of images.
2. Description of the Background Art
As one example of conventional image-processing apparatus, an image-pickup apparatus, such as a digital still camera (hereinafter, referred to as “digital camera”) and a film camera, which carries out a controlling operation that is best-suited for an image-pickup scene by allowing the user to select an image-pickup mode in accordance with the image-pickup scene, has been known. The user is allowed to select one image-pickup mode from a plurality of image-pickup modes, such as “portrait”, “sports action”, “landscape” and “night portrait” modes, in accordance with the purpose thereof, to obtain an image that is suitable for the image-pickup scene.
With respect to each of the image-pickup modes, parameters relating to exposure controls, such as the diaphragm of a lens system, shutter speed, and flash light emission, have been preliminarily set, and the image-pickup apparatus carries out controlling operations in accordance with these parameters. For example, in the image-pickup mode suitable for a portrait scene, parameters such as setting of the diaphragm on the opening side are set. The setting of the diaphragm on the opening side makes the depth of field shallower to obtain an image with only the main subject (person) being beautifully distinguished while the background is faded.
Moreover, with respect to digital image-pickup apparatuses such as digital cameras, since it is possible to carry out image processing on a picked-up image, parameters relating to image processing such as white balance correction and γ correction are also set in the image-pickup modes in addition to the above-mentioned exposure controlling parameters. Thus, it becomes possible to carry out best-suited image processing in accordance with an image-pickup scene, and consequently to provide a more effective image.
However, in the above-mentioned image-pickup apparatuses, the user needs to determine an image-pickup scene and to select any one of the image-pickup modes, resulting in time-consuming difficult operations and a failure to deal with an instantaneous shutter chance. For this reason, most of scenes tend to be picked up in the standard image-pickup mode, and in most cases, prepared functions are not sufficiently utilized.
In order to solve this problem, an image-pickup apparatus which discriminates image-pickup scenes and automatically selects a best-suited image-pickup mode has been proposed. When set to an automatic selection setting that automatically selects an image-pickup mode, such an image-pickup apparatus makes it possible to easily obtain an image suitable for the corresponding image-pickup scene without the necessity of troublesome operations. However, since the discrimination is automatically made, there is a possibility of misdiscrimination in an image-pickup scene, and if an image-pickup operation is carried out under misdiscrimination, it is not possible to carry out an appropriate image-pickup control suitable for an image-pickup scene. In particular, in the case when a certain scene is misdiscriminated to an image-pickup scene that aims at an opposite effect, the resulting image is subjected to adverse effects and serious degradation in the image quality.